Stack elevator for printing machine



8, 1965 c. P. KUEVER STACK ELEVATOR FOR PRINTING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed 001;. 15, 1964 INVENTOR CECIL P. KUEVER Dec. 28, 1965 c. P. KUEVER STACK ELEVATOR FOR PRINTING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed 0012. 15, 1964 INVENTOR CECIL P KUEVER United States Patent 3,226,112 STACK ELEVATGR FOR PRINTING MACHINE Cecil P. Kuever, 3815 Pope St., Washington, D.C. Filed Oct. 15, 1964, Ser. No. 404,137 6 Claims. (Cl. 271-62) The present invention relates to pile feeders in which a pile of sheets is elevated to maintain the top of the pile between predetermined levels as the top sheets are removed therefrom and, particularly to the type of pile feeder where a new stack of sheets can be quickly brought to a position where it can be elevated to the sheet feeding position with minimum amount of time of stoppage of the machine with which the pile feeder is associated.

Modern printing machines are geared for fast operation, that is, sheets are fed to the printing machine at incredible speeds and it thereby becomes necessary that a quick change-over be provided so as to reduce the length of time that the printing machine is not in operation due to a change-over of one stack of sheets to another upon the depletion of the sheet supply.

In the past, several attempts have been made to cut down the amount of time needed for replacing a stack of sheets and to thereby cut down the amount of time that the printing machine is not in operation due to the lack of a sheet to be fed thereto, but all of these attempts have fallen short of their desired goals. Either the prior art devices were of such complicated nature as not to be readily adaptable to an existing printing machine without modification thereof, or pairs of elevator mechanisms have been provided so that when one elevator with a stack of sheets thereon is in a sheet fe ding position, the other elevator is in a lower position where a stack of sheets can be placed thereon. However, these prior attempts to solve the problem have not met with success inasmuch as, due to their complexities, they have not been adapted to existing printing machines without considerably modifying the printer which is a costly operation.

As is well known, a stack of sheets which is to be fed to a printing machine is normally quite heavy and very difficult for a workman to manipulate and it is an object of the present invention to provide a means whereby a new stack of sheets can be quickly loaded on to a supporting surface and elevated to a sheet feeding position in a minimum amount of time so as to increase the efficiency of the printing machine by reducing the time wherein it is idle by reason of lack of sheets being fed thereto. It is a well known fact that if a constant supply of sheets can be fed to a printing machine that the etficiency of the printing machine will be materially increased but since this is not feasible with the existing printing machine, there is provided in the instant invention a means whereby the change-over from one supply of sheets to a new supply of sheets can be effected with a minimum amount of time of stoppage of the printing operation. This feature alone will add materially to the production of the printing machine and to thereby increase the efficiency thereof from a cost standpoint.

It is an object of the invention to provide a means whereby, without altering the existing printing machine, a new supply of sheets can be quickly brought to proper feeding position with minimum amount of effort on the part of the operator of the printing machine.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a means whereby a single operator can load on to a pallet a new supply of sheets as sheets are being fed to the printing machine so that as a supply of sheets is being fed to a printing machine, a new supply of sheets can be loaded by a single operator on to a pallet which is positioned under the stack of sheets which is being fed to the printing machine thereby doing away with the handling of a fully loaded pallet which is not only bulky but quite heavy.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof made with reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part of the present specification for all matter shown therein, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a stack elevating device made in accordance with the present invention, certain portions being shown in section;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation of a stack feeder made in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view, chiefly in side elevation, of the stack shifting platform used in association with the present mechanism;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary View in side elevation of the stack supporting and elevating mechanism, other parts of the mechanism being removed for the sake of clearness of illustration; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a pallet employed with the present invention.

In the drawings, numeral designates the stack elevator for sheet feeding mechanism for the present invention shown in association with a conventional printing press generally indicated by reference character 11. Since the printing press forms no part of the present invention, it sufiices to say that the same is of conventional construction and is provided with conventional sheet picker mechanism which is adapted to pick up a sheet of paper from the stack and to feed the same, one at a time, through suitable roller mechanism to the printing machine for printing thereon. For sake of clarity and since the sheet picker mechanism forms no part of the present invention it is understood that any sheet picker mechanism can be employed with the present stack elevator for a sheet feeding machine.

Mounted at the forward or sheet feeding end of a printing press are standards 12 which can be suitably anchored to a floor or other supporting surface through any suitable means. A pair of support bars 13, only one shown in the drawings, are suitably secured to the standards 12 by means of a conventional type coupling 14 and extend to the sides of the printing machine 11 where they are secured thereto by any suitable means. The support bars 13 together with the standards 12 form a supporting structure for the operating parts of the stack elevator of the subject invention. A pair of brackets 15, only one shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, are secured by any suitable means to the support bars 13 and the brackets 15 have mounted at their upper ends thereof sprocket wheels 16, over which are trained sprocket chains 17. Support bars 13 also have mounted thereon a second pair of sprocket wheels 18. The sprocket wheels 18 are suitably secured to the support bars 13 by means of a conventional bracket 19 which is secured to the support bars 13 through any suitable means. Sprocket chains 20 are trained over the sprocket wheels 18 and lead to a suitable motor mechanism, not shown, for operation of the chains from a lowermost position such as shown in full lines in FIG. 1 to the dotted line position shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings. Each pair of sprocket chains 17 and 20 have secured at the lower ends thereof U-shaped members 21 and 22 such as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings. The U-shaped members are adapted to elevate a pallet with a stack of sheets thereon in a manner to be described hereinafter.

Employed with the present invention is a pallet generally indicated by reference character 23 in FIG. 5 of the drawings. The pallet comprises a generally rectangularly shaped board or like supporting surface and has formed along one edge thereof a slot 24 and is provided at either side thereof with pairs of supporting cars 25 and 26 which are suitably anchored to the pallet 23 in any suitable way. The supporting ears and 26 may be in the nature of short metallic straps secured to the undersurface of the pallet 23 or if preferred, as shown in FIG. 5, the supporting ears may extend throughout the width of the pallet 23 so as to add to the rigidity of the pallet. In using the present invention, a number of pallets 23 may be employed although it has been found that by using two such pallets, the desired results can be obtained. It is pointed out at this time that while one pallet 23 is in elevated position such as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1 of the drawings, a second pallet can be placed on a suitable supporting surface for loading and for subsequent elevation upon depletion of the supply of paper on the raised pallet.

Referring now particularly to FIG. 3 of the drawings there is shown generally at 27 a supporting surface for the pallets aforesaid. The supporting surface comprises a plate member 28 formed of metal or other similar material and is supported for reciprocal movement on roller members 29, 29 and 30 mounted on shafts 31, 31' and 32, respectively, which are stationarily mounted in walls 33 and 34 which are the side walls of a box-like structure indicated generally at 35 in FIG. 4 of the drawings. The box-like structure 35 is adapted to lie on a floor or other supporting surface and houses a linkage mechanism generally indicated at 36, FIG. 3, which is employed for moving the supporting plate 28 from a position shown in full lines in FIG. 3 to the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3 of the drawings. The linkage mechanism 36 comprises a pair of horizontally extending links 37 and 38 which are pivotally secured together by means of a connecting link 39 which is pivotally mounted to a vertically extending support 40 by means of a pivot pin 41. A linkage plate 42 is secured in any suitable manner to the undersurface of the supporting plate 28 and link 38 is secured thereto by means of a pivot pin 43. Also housed within the box-like structure 35 is a vertical linkage 44 which is pivotally secured in any desired manner to wall 23 of the box-like structure 35. A horizontally extending section 45 of a crank 46 is fixed to the upper end of the vertical linkage 44 and the lower end of the linkage 44 pivotally connects with linkage 37. It will therefore be seen that upon actuation of the crank 46 that movement of the links 37, 38, 39 will be effected and this movement will be transmitted to the support plate 28 which has mounted thereon the removable pallet 23.

As clearly shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings the U shaped members 21 and 22 must be lowered to a position below the supporting ears 25 and 26 when it is desired to elevate a pallet from a loading position to a paper delivering position. Since while the pallet is being loaded with a fresh supply of paper the supporting cars 25 of the supporting pallet 23 lie closely adjacent to the front of the printing machine, it becomes necessary to move the pallet away from the front end of the printing machines so as to enable the U-shaped member 21 to be lowered to a position below the supporting ears 25. Actuation of the crank 45 as aforesaid, will, through the linkage mechanism eifect horizontal movement of the supporting plate 28 and pallet 23 thereon. With the pallet 23 moved away from the front of the printing machine as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 4 of the drawings, the U-shaped member 21 can therefor be lowered to a position below the ears 25 and while in this position, the U-shaped member 22 which. is at the front end of the loading platform can then be swung outwardly in the direction of the arrows indicated in FIG. 4 where it can travel to a position under the ears 26. After the U-shaped members 21 and 22 have thus been positioned as aforesaid, the pallet 23 is returned to its original position as shown in full lines in FIG. 4 of the drawings and the motive power for elevating the sprocket chains 17 and 20 is actuated and the sprocket through the aforemen tioned gearing elevates the loaded pallet to a position where it is in sheet feeding position.

It will therefore be seen that a fully loaded pallet with a stack of paper thereon can be easily moved away from the printing machine so as to enable the elevating mechanism to be lowered to a position where it can engage the undersurface of the supporting cars 25 and 26 and to thereby enable the elevator mechanism to elevate the pallet to a sheet feeding position.

The pallet 23 is provided with a slot 24, as aforesaid, and the slot permits the pallet while being elevated to rise in a true vertical movement by reason of a spacer bar 47 which fits within the aforementioned slot 24. The spacer bar 47 is suitably anchored to one of the supports 13 through any suitable means as shown at 48 in FIG. 1 of the drawings.

Describing now the manner of operation of the instant invention it will be assumed that there is a pallet with a stack of sheets thereon in sheet feeding position such as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 1 of the drawings. While the sheets are being taken from this stack of sheets, a second pallet is placed upon the supporting surface 28 and there loaded manually until the desired stack has been placed thereon. \Vhen the supply of sheets from the stack has been depleted, the pallet is removed manually from the supporting surfaces 21 and 22 and the sprocket chains are caused to be lowered so as to en age the newly loaded pallet. As described above, before U-shaped member 21 can be lowered to a position below the supporting cars 25 on the pallet, the pallet must be moved away from the printing machine thereby enabling the U-shaped member to be lowered to a position below the ears. This is effected in the manner aforesaid by actuating the crank 4s and through the linkage mechanism described above the pallet is caused to ride on rollers and can thus be easily moved away from the front of the machine. Bearing in mind that a loaded pallet is one which is extremely heavy and bulky to handle, there is provided herein a means whereby a fully loaded pallet can be easily moved away from the front end of the printing machine so as to enable the elevating mechanism to be positioned below the supporting ears on the pallet and after thus positioned the pallet can be returned to its initial position and upon actuation of the motor power for elevating the pallet the sprocket chains through the suitable gearing shown will elevate the loaded pallet to a sheet feeding position. This can all be accomplished by one person and it will thus be seen that a change over from a depleted supply on one pallet to be replaced by a fully loaded pallet in a minimum amount of time and consequently, a minimum amount of time of stoppage of the printing machine which will materially increase its efliciency insofar as cost standpoint and efiiciency in operation. Actually, the only time consumed in the change over from one pallet to another is the time necessary for lowering the chains which engage the pallets from a loading position and to elevate the same to a sheet feeding position. Also, it will be readily seen that this operation can be performed by a single person operating the printing machine.

Various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments illustrated and described herein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

Having thus described the invention: what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A stack elevator mechanism for elevating a stack of sheets to a sheet feeding position for a printing machine comprising a frame for supporting said elevator mechanism, said frame having thereon sprocket wheels engaging sprocket chains, a generally U-shaped member secured to said sprocket chain for engaging a pallet to be elevated, a pallet having supporting ears at the ends thereof, a pallet loading supporting surface comprising a movable surface, crank and linkage means for effecting movement of said movable surface so as to enable said U-shaped members to be lowered to a position below said supporting ears when said pallet is to be elevated from a pallet loading position to .a sheet feeding position.

2. A stack elevator mechanism for elevating a stack of sheets to a sheet feeding position for a printing machine comprising a pair of vertical standards, horizontally disposed support bars secured to said standards, elevator means supported by said support bars, a removable pallet adapted to be elevated by said elevator means from a pallet loading position to a sheet feeding position, said pallet having supporting surfaces extending beyond the sides thereof for engagement with supporting surfaces on said elevator, a movable surface for supporting a second pallet while a stack of sheets is placed thereon, linkage means associated with said movable surface and a crank for actuating said linkage means for effecting movement of said movable surface and to cause the same to be moved away from said printing machine so as to enable said elevator means to be lowered to a position below said pallet supporting surfaces when a pallet with a supply of sheets thereon is to be elevated to a sheet feeding position.

3. A stack elevator mechanism for a printing machine for elevating a pallet with a stack of sheets thereon from a pallet loading position to a sheet feeding position comprising a pair of vertical standards, horizontally disposed support bars secured to said standards and to said printing machine, elevator means comprising sprocket chains supported by said supports bars, generally U-shaped members supported at the lower ends of said sprocket chains for engagement with a pallet having a supply of sheets thereon, supporting ears on said pallet, a movable pallet loading platform, said platform comprising a box-like structure, linkage means housed within said boxlike structure and operatively connected to said loading platform, a crank extending outwardly of said box-like structure and connected to said linkage for effecting movement of said pallet loading platform from a position closely adjacent said printing machine to a position outwardly of said printing machine so as to permit the said U-shaped members to be lowered to a position below the supporting ears on said pallet when a pallet with a stack of sheets thereon is to be moved from a pallet loading position to a sheet feeding position.

4. The structure defined in claim 3 wherein said movable pallet loading platform is supported on a plurality of rollers mounted within said box-like structure.

5. The structure defined in claim 3 wherein said pallet is provided with a slot along which is adapted to receive a vertically disposed spacer bar for maintaining said pallet in true vertical alignment when said pallet is elevated from a pallet loading position to a sheet feeding position.

6. The structure defined in claim 5 wherein said spacer bar is secured to one of said horizontally disposed support bars.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,218,401 10/ 1940 Martin 271-62 2,734,744 2/ 1956 Backhouse 27l62 2,817,521 12/1957 Koch 27l62 GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner.

A. MAKAY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A STACK ELEVATOR MECHANISM FOR ELEVATING A STACK OF SHEETS TO A SHEET FEEDING POSITION FOR A PRINTING MACHINE COMPRISING A FRAME FOR SUPPORTING SID ELEVATOR MECHANISM, SAID FRAME HAVING THEREON SPROCKET WHEELS ENGAGING SPROCKET CHAINS, A GENERALLY U-SHAPED MEMBER SECURED TO SAID SPROCKET CHAIN FOR ENGAGING A PALLET TO BE ELEVATED, A PALLET HAVING SUPPORTING EARS AT THE ENDS THEREOF, A PALLET LOADING SUPPORTING SURFACE COMPRISING A MOVABLE SURFACE, CRANK AND LINKAGE MEANS FOR EFFECTING MOVEMENT OF SAID MOVABLE SURFACE SO AS TO ENABLE SAID U-SHAPED MEMBERS TO BE LOWERED TO A POSITION BELOW SAID SUPPORTING EARS WHEN SAID PALLET IS TO BE ELEVATED FROM A PALLET LOADING POSITION TO A SHEET FEEDING POSITION. 